


The only heaven I'll be sent to is when I'm alone with you

by CocoOfTheNight



Series: HC Mage AU [1]
Category: Normal Boots, PBG Hardcore, PBG Hardcore series
Genre: HC Mage AU, M/M, Other, Unrequited Love, Whoops one of them die, discord request, lol, my bad - Freeform, not my forte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-10 03:25:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19490977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CocoOfTheNight/pseuds/CocoOfTheNight
Summary: Whilst on a quest, Jeff and Austin go off to gather food and Austin stops to admire his friend. However, they’re not alone.





	The only heaven I'll be sent to is when I'm alone with you

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry Jeff lol. Uhh thanks to my Discord Squad for the idea I love you all. First (posted) ficlet in my HC Mage AU (found on tumblr with the same name).

Nothing seemed like it could go wrong.

It was all set up to be perfect - him and Jeff, walking along, alone. The sun was bright, the sky clear. It was perfect. Austin fiddled with the leather strap around his sword (he’d insisted on it) and glanced over at Jeff. He was perfect. 

Jeff seemed to notice him looking and turned slightly, with a wide grin. The sunlight bounced off of his face in just the right spot, making his eyes look like they were sparkling. Austin flushed and cleared his throat, looking away. He couldn’t get distracted - they were on animal duty; trying to find animals for a farm or meat to sustain them during their quest. 

But, Austin couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t help looking over at Jeff with his perfect eyes and his perfect hair, even when he was tired, and a smile that lit up like fireworks in the sky. 

The fatal mistake. 

As Austin was admiring Jeff’s face for what had to be the hundredth time that day, he missed the shadows moving. He missed the elongated, pitch figure emerging from the trees, with piercing purple eyes. He didn’t miss the clicks of its… voice? And he sure didn’t miss the alarm from Jeff as the thing lunged.

“No!” Jeff cried, almost flinging himself in the path of the entity, guarding Austin as best as he could (even in a situation like this, he couldn’t help but admire Jeff’s bravery even when he stood a head shorter than Austin). Austin could barely react before the creature clicked eerily once more, grabbed Jeff’s arm with sharp claws and vanished in a cloud of purple sparks. 

Austin stared at the empty air where Jeff had stood mere moments before. He blinked, uncomprehending, and then-

“Jeff! No- oh my god, Jeff?” Where was he? Where was he?? 

Wheeling around, Austin jerkily scanned the field they’d just been in. Nothing. No Jeff, no creature, no noise aside from his own breathing, panicked and wheezing. He tried again, one more time. Quiet, hopeful. “... Jeff?”

No answer. No noise. No Jeff. 

The silence was broken by Austin crying.

—

“I’m sure he’s okay - he can’t be… why would you even think that?” Reece asked, eyes almost pleading. 

Of course his mind had immediately gone there. Why would it have not? They’d already lost Ian and Ray to tragic accidents and the purple left behind was almost a death sentence by now. 

Austin had, eventually, gotten up and raced home as fast as possible. He tried to avoid looking at the house or the fence, to avoid the sign that Jeff had cheerfully constructed while chatting aimlessly about nothing to him and Dean. He’d found the group eating in silence but noise had flared up the moment they’d seen Austin, panicked and alone. 

“Hey- come sit down. Take a moment to breathe,” Luke, calm as always, soothed him. It was ironic, considering he was close to Jeff as well. He tried to push any bitterness towards Luke away. “We’ll find him.” 

Austin looked Luke in the eyes and nodded.

—

Oh, they found him. Well, more like he found them, but the semantics did not need to be argued when Jeff was bleeding out on the ground.

Austin was in shock. Jeff had just… appeared. Lingering purple sparks floated and faded, and Jeff wheezed on the floor, crimson blood coating his stomach and hands. 

There was so much. Austin held onto the desperate hope that it wasn’t all Jeff’s. He ignored the shiny, open hole in Jeff’s torso. 

Jeff blinked unsteadily and looked up. He… he fucking grinned. Jeff saw Austin and grinned, a brightness that did not in any way reflect the situation they were currently in. “H-hey Austin. Sorry to- to drop in like this.” Punctuated by a wet cough.

Despite himself, despite the tears, Austin smiled a little. “That was terrible.”

“I-“ Jeff couldn’t finish, but Austin knew what he meant. Jeff wanted to distract him from the- no, not an inevitability. Jeff would not- could not - die.

Somebody (maybe Luke, maybe Dean) tried to lift Jeff from Austin’s arms, eliciting a pained cry from the former and a sharp, desperate, almost animal glare from the latter. “We need to help, Austin.”

“Don’t.” Jeff wheezed, the pain having lessened just enough. “You all know…”

“Shut up! Jeff, don’t say that- Luke, come on, help him then!” Austin shook his head violently, still not loosening his grip. If he let Jeff go… he couldn’t. If he let Jeff go at all he’d be admitting that there was something wrong, that they weren’t in that field, that they weren’t happy. Austin wasn’t ready for it.

Jeff’s eyes fluttered shut before being forced open, only half looking up at Austin now. “Au- Austin… it’s fine, l’amour.” 

“Jeff, I-“ it was almost like nobody else was there with them. Austin would say it, Jeff would be fine. He had to be. But Jeff had stopped responding, stopped opening his eyes. His heart beat weaker. 

A hand on his shoulder. “Austin, c’mon… we’ve gotta move him.” He shrugged it off, staring into Jeff’s face, waiting for it to twitch again, for his eyes to blink open, his mouth to go back into that cheerful and goofy smile that lit up like fireworks. Nothing happened. 

Austin stared down and something wet fell on Jeff’s cold cheek. A tear.


End file.
